Return to Hyrule
by AkioElf003
Summary: Link is taken back to Hyrule with hopes of saving it. OoT, may change in later story.
1. He Remembered

-1

He remembered. He remembered his friends Malon, and Zelda, and Navi, and he remembered the rock-eating Gorons, and the fish-like Zora, and the simple people of Kakariko, and the busy people of the castle town, and he remembered all the land of Hyrule, the desert to the west, the mountains to the east, the castle to the north, and the forest, ah the forest, were he spent his youngest years, but that was a truly long time ago. It was coming back to him as he lay there on the bed, these many things he had forgotten.

His life more than fifteen years back was now flooding him into exhaustion, so much that he could hardly get up. When he did, he could hardly moved, and trembling, he walked across the room to take a look in the mirror. Suddenly he felt a sharp, biting pain in both of his arms, surging to his fingers, then in his legs going to his toes, all this pain continuing as his head began to ache as harder than he had ever experienced. He looked downwards at the drawer under his mirror and coughed, bringing out blood and fell to the floor. When he awoke he looked around the room, though it was not his cozy home in Termina; it appeared to be his old Kokiri treehouse, though that seemed more than impossible, and judging from the recent pain, he could be dreaming or even in some form of shock. He got up and went to the mirror again, and as he looked at it, to Link's surprise and shock, he appeared… young!

He looked down, about to vomit from shock, when he saw a card with what appeared to be a crying eye on it. He picked it up and turned it over to reveal a one-word note that simply said "Run". Just then, he heard something that sounded oddly familiar in the direction of were his bed would be. He was about to look, when he heard a loud voice from outside; Navi! His old fairy was whizzing through the air, talking to the Kokiri, asking about his location. Panicking, he ran to and jumped out of the back window. He almost forgot he was in a treehouse, though luckily caught himself on the window sill. He looked through the window and saw the fairy going down the ladder with someone.

Link went back over to the mirror. Judging by his features, was about ten, maybe eleven, so he was at least fifteen years younger. He was missing his two earrings and the scar over his right eye, his ponytail; and he had gained things back as well, like his old tunic, hat, and his favorite pair of Kokiri made boots, though surprisingly none of his old equipment.

He couldn't go down the way ladder for fear of being discovered, and the only other way down was the back window, though it was much to far of a drop to just jump; he looked around the room to see if there was anything spiked or ropelike, but all he found was a comforter and some dull steak knifes. Moving quickly to keep up with Navi, he cut the thick blanket into strips, tied them together, and stuck the makeshift rope on a nail on the sill.

After slipping down the side of the trunk, he stealthfully went around the old tree and saw Saria, an old friend of his, talking to some blond kid in green, but he was to far away to hear what about. Soon they were done, and the blond child walked away, but strangely, Saria didn't. She just stood there, staring at something, but Link couldn't find what, seeing as it wasn't him. She looked sad, as if something was had gone terribly wrong, or if she had lost something very precious to her. The look was painful to Link, who felt the sudden need to comfort her, though he knew he could not risk discovery, at least until he understood his situation. Knowing this, he soon slowly began backing into the unsettled area of the Kokiri forest.

He went until he found a small patch with no trees. It was rather peculiar, having a spot like that in the middle of the other tall trees. There were bushes circling the area, and a path leading out through the rough woods, though he decided not to go through it just yet.

He sat down on a stump, thinking about what had happened. He knew that there was no way out of the world with Termina, although he never really went to far away from Termina. All in all, he had searched for a way out, especially around where he came in, and to no avail; was no exit. And of course, there was no mask that would teleport him back either, seeing as Link had gone through many mask shops and sampled many merchant's wares. Any spells, potions or form of fairy magic that he knew of could do this, though his knowledge of those things was small as of late. So, how had this happened?

He had seen the mark on the card more than once before; a similar mark was on the gossip stones, objects of rock that could tell the time and, of course, gossip about usually random subjects, but the tear was more of a smile. He had also seen it on the two Shiekah, Impa and Shiek, but what could the Shiekah have anything to do with this?

While he was thinking on this, he heard a rustling in the bushes around him. He hassled for a weapon, but all he could find was a thick and rotting stick on the ground. It would have to do, as five deku scrubs popped out of the bushes, two in front, one on his left, one on his right, and one behind. The one on his left and right shot out deku nuts at the same time while the back one charged with a spin attack. Link evaded backwards switching places with the rear scrub, leaving the projectiles to hit the now frontal enemy. While the others were slight shock about what had just happened, Link was ran towards the left, grabbed it by the legs, and swung it towards the front two, only taking one out. The other shot at him only seconds after the rightmost did. Link dodged one with a side roll and used his "weapon" to deflect the other towards the front beast, leaving the last to run away terrified.

He thought he handled that quite well, but decided to go down that path, just in case the shrub was running more for help than out of terror.

* * *

Please RnR! I can't improve without proper criticism and/or praise!


	2. Who did This?

-1It was a rather long path, giving Link a little more time to think. The only explanation as to what had happened was that someone had intentionally brought him back with very advanced, possibly dark magic. The spell would have been used either to bring him back to help with a situation, or to extract revenge and assassinate him. Whether it was meant to make him young or not wasn't clear. But who could be capable of such magic?

Very few of the Hyleans were capable of spells that transcended time itself. The Gerudos of the desert had no such intention, and might be against something that could endanger there king, Ganondorf. The zoras, gorons, and especially the kokiri didn't dabble that much in magic anyway, and the sages had intended to not interfere to much less it be truly necessary. The evils of the world had also become quite dormant, as far as Link was concerned. That left only other one plausible answer. The Shiekah.

If the Shiekah did have something to do with after all, then the entire situation was serious. The Shiekah, a tribe that was almost completely wiped out by the time he was born, were extremely secretive. In fact, the only two members he had ever known were Impa and Shiek, Shiek, an old friend who helped greatly while Link was searching for the sages, and Impa, the Sage of Shadows. Secretly working for the good of Hyrule, they were everywhere disguised or hiding. People were aware of their existence, how they supposedly had a great position with the royal family. The symbol on the Gossip Stones implied that they were happy, but the symbol they wore on there chests said something very different. It spoke of betrayal or sorrow, but then why would the royal family go to such lengths to cover it up, with their version of the mark on the Gossip Stones, flags, and masks?

On that thought, the path ran out to an even bigger clearing, with a large dark tree in the middle. It's leaves were falling out, rather rapidly Link noticed, and if he looked very closely, he could see small but slowly growing dark spots on the bark. He recognized the gigantic plant to be the Great Deku Tree, the spirit that created and took care of the Kokiri. The old original died when Link was still young and just beginning his quest, but another one sprouted after he left the forest temple. It's size was massive compared to it's original sprout, especially considering it seemed only a small number of years since it had started growing.

As he was approaching the large tree, a deku baba lunged out at him from the ground, snapping wildly. Link jumped back just in time, but it wasn't over yet. He suddenly remembered why passage near the Great Deku Tree was forbidden. Suddenly, he was almost completely surrounded by snapping vines, all lunging towards him. He side rolled through a small space between two babas and ran towards the trunk of the Deku Tree. He jumped on to a massive emerging root. All of a sudden, the babas were driven into the ground, as if something had pulled them under by the roots.

Link slowly stepped down off the root, and to his surprise, the evil vines didn't reemerge. He heard a loud voice, that was seemingly everywhere around him at once; it sounded like it could be the surrounding trees, each no one tree being louder than the other. It was a loud, deep voice, but it was strangely comforting, and it gave reassuring strength to the now young hero.


	3. The Great Tree

-1"You are lost, young traveler. Where you were was no accident. You were where you were meant to be. Why have you returned, my friend?" said the spirit. Link stood and spoke boldly yet respectively towards the forest deity, showing much maturity: "I was brought back by some form of strong witchcraft, or even sorcery, but from whom I do not completely know. It could be for my assassination or for Hyrule's better good. The only proof I have- had, was on a card that had a symbol on it that I believe belongs to the Shiekah."

"Ah yes. I have had strange and foreign feelings around these woods for months now," said the tree. "There is an area not far from here without trees that I know not how it came to be; I have felt soft footsteps there for months now, and have heard many strange songs. Whoever has been doing this has been very cautious, but I do not believe that you should try to find them. If the Shiekah did bring you back, they will find you."

"Thank you. These words have brought me understanding. I will soon go to Kakariko to find lodging. But first, how many years has it been since I left?" Link asked as he walked around to the front of the tree.

"You have not even left yet, my young traveler." with this, he opened his mouth, letting out a green-garbed boy with a fairy. Link hid, trying to avoid any confusion with what could be an old friend.

Strangely, passage wouldn't have usually been allowed in that area, no less into the Great Deku Tree's trunk.


	4. Realization

-1As he crept into the dark clearing he had entered through, he turned back for a last glance. As he did, he noticed that the dark spots on the tree were growing rapidly now, and the leaves on were falling in heaps.

_That can't be right_, he thought. _It hasn't been more than twenty-five years since I left! Unless…_

Suddenly it all made sense. Someone had brought him back to the time to before he had left, before he had even become the Hero of Time. They wanted him in his weakest form. They wanted to kill him.

He heard creaking and cracking behind him, and as he turned and saw the Great Deku Tree die, he knew it was true; he had been brought back for his assassination.


	5. That Stupid King!

-1It was almost morning. The summoning spell had taken all night, but it was worth it. Soon vengeance would be theirs.

"_What!?" Cor yelled at the tribe leader. "But why!? Relations have always been great with the royal family! Why would they just toss us aside like some tool!" _

_"Because we _are_ just some tool," spoke Sancta, "and we are being replaced by a newer one. We were created with the knowledge that we were meant to help this world, and we have, and we will continue to, even if we must continue in secrecy._

_"This is painful for us too, Cor; we all have friends in the palace, but…" But he couldn't finish the sentence; Sancta himself had a wife and two children in the market town, and he was restricted now to even visit, to tell them that he still cared and that he wished he could be there with them._

_"But we all have to make sacrifices." he managed to choke out._

Forty-five years ago, he thought silently to himself. Only about five or six years before he doomed the nation. It was a tragedy that he himself had not foreseen. But he didn't care. He stopped caring forty-five years ago.

In fact, he encouraged the downfall of Hyrule. One could even say that he started the Great War some eight or nine years ago. One could even say that he was the one that put his son Ganondorf in good terms with the king.

Called himself a king, that stupid monarchy, couldn't pass a law that was good for his country if he tried to, not that he did. Couldn't have saved his country, no less himself, no, no, never.

And he had it coming, he knew he did, the way he shunned us those many years ago, pushing us further into the darkness. He even tried to cover it up, and tried to make our insignia smile, just as it actually began to weep.

And weep it did.


End file.
